Abstract
Bacteriophages can be used in a variety of ways to detect bacteria. The technique of combining conductance measurement and phage lysis has been shown to be an effective way of screening for the presence of Salmonella in skimmed milk powder, egg powder, cocoa powder, and various chocolate products showed that a number of bacterial pathogens could be detected in dairy products by monitoring changes in the impedance of selective media in the presence and absence of host-specific bacteriophage. Combining the plaque polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique with the phage-based detection assay allowed the rapid and specific detection of viable Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) in milk samples in just 48 h. Molecular mimicry occurs between the polysialic acid polysaccharide of bacterial pathogens causing sepsis and meningitis, and the carbohydrate units of the neural cell adhesion molecule. The most researched application of bacteriophages for the detection of bacterial pathogens has involved their use as transducing agents to deliver genes whose products can generate a measurable signal. Most transducing phage detection assays have employed bacterial luciferase (lux) or firefly luciferase (luc) genes as the reporter systems. The majority of reporter phage testing to determine antibiotic susceptibility has centered on the mycobacteria. Phage-based diagnostic technologies are still in their infancy; although they were first seriously proposed over 30 years ago. The research described in this chapter suggests that rapid, reliable, and sensitive methods for the phage-based detection of bacterial pathogens are possible, but these technologies have not been widely accepted.
Published Version
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